User blog:Sketch, Ninja of the Pen/Sketch's Unofficial Guide to Trolling
So first off: There is no excuse for what Windows Ninjago and whatever other identities he uses has been doing. It is outright harassment, and I don't want to take away from that. Nor do I want this to come across as victim-blaming. But the way I've seen the community here responding to trolls has been less than stellar. The point of trolling is to trigger an emotional response. And I've seen more raw emotions than productive responses. So, I'm going to try to tactfully address some points that are good in general for responding to trolls, but are not necessarily relevant to our own history here. 1. Don't trollname. When someone is trolling you, calling them out as a troll calmly is okay. What one should not do is repeatedly and SCREAMINGLY call them out every time they open their mouth. Once you have determined they are a troll and perhaps informed the proper authorities, you should move on to the next step. 2. Don't respond. Once you're sure they are trolling you, the best thing to do is really to ignore them. Trolling is the art of eliciting negative reactions. Can it be annoying to get notifications from them all the time? Yes. If you do have to read them and they cross an emotional line, does it hurt? I won't deny that. But responding to their BS is a waste of time and playing right into their hands. This is a digital social arena. You can think through everything you say before you hit "send", including whether or not you should hit "send". And if you do have to respond, here's another thing... 3. Don't harass back. You should not, under any circumstances, resort to personal attacks and harassment in response to harassment. Again, it doesn't help in the slightest. All it does is fuel your anger all the more, and make it harder for the staff to see who's actually at fault in a given situation. Even when the troll is gone, insulting behind their backs is petty and unnecessary. So now let's get into the "positive" segment. 4. Do report properly. Make sure you're going to the right authorities and follow whatever guidelines are in place for reporting trolling/harassment. Generally speaking, reports should go to local staff, and should include links or references to specific incidents. They should be relatively calm; anger-filled reports only muddle the message. When the trolling starts to span multiple wikis, then you can and should call in Wikia staff. Again, concise, clear, citation-laced reports are the most effective. 5. Do be patient. Sometimes staff are unavailable or reluctant. If they are reluctant, you can politely argue your case, but if told to drop the subject, drop the subject. If a staff member is blatantly ignoring obvious trolling/harassment, you can appeal to another staff member; if it seems to be a systemic issue, you might want to find another place... 6. Do know yourself. If dealing with a troll does not take away from your experience with the rest of the community, don't feel like you have to disconnect. If dealing with a troll makes even logging in hard, don't force yourself. Remember that your online life shouldn't adversely affect your RL life; I've forced myself to disconnect several times when drama in a given community gave me RL stress (in cases where I was not responsible for mediating/moderating the community). Know what's best for yourself and for a given situation. I'll wrap it up there, thank you for coming to my TED talk. ordinary sketchposting to resume ASAP don't worry Category:Blog posts